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Player to Player - Swindle to Spy
'The Shield of Lannisport - Warden of the West.' One thing I have learned being a Lannister, is patience. It is one of the houses that I have found really tricky to play but ultimately one of the most effective. Every Alliance should have a Lannister no doubt. For their Swindle attack and defense, for the silver they have endless amount in, cheap resources and cheap unit production. However, unlike the Martell House we examined the Lannister House is less versitile but if perfected, being a Lannister is very powerful and very purposeful. House Lannister of Casterly Rock is one of the Great Houses of Westeros, one of its richest and most powerful families and oldest dynasties. The major characters Jaime, Cersei, and Tyrion and the recurring characters Tywin, Kevan, and Lancel are members of the house. Tywin is the head of House Lannister and Lord of Casterly Rock. Their lands are in the far west of the continent. Their seat is Casterly Rock, a massive rocky promontory overlooking the Sunset Sea which has had habitations and fortifications built into it over the millennia. They are the Lords Paramount of the Westerlands and Wardens of the West. House Lannister's Heraldry consists of a golden lion on a crimson background, and their House words are "Hear me roar!", which is rarely mentioned. Their unofficial motto, which is as well known as the official one, is "A Lannister always pays his debts" - which is used much more often and mostly in negative context, though it can also be used in the original, literal sense. The incestuous relationship of Cersei and Jaime has been concealed in a conspiracy. Their son Joffrey Baratheon has claimed the Iron Throne on the premise that he was actually fathered by the late King Robert Baratheon. Lord Tywin is a key supporter of his reign in the War of the Five Kings. 'House Lannister' The one thing I have noticed being a Lannister, is the overwhelming urge to be a two-faced, manipulative bastard, and as strange as that may sound, the fealty of Lannister is orientated very much towards the Swindle skill in every respect. Swindle is one of the actions that can be very tricky to master, but highly effective in both PtP and AvA, which I will explain later. However, it does require you to be underhanded and mischievous, rather like Tyron is here. The important aspect of the Lannister house is trade, because units, weapons and armour become less expensive to make and, as the house is famous for, you will acquire a lot of silver in the long term. In my personal opinion, and as much as I hate to admit it, a Lannister is a must, in every alliance. From producing camp resources to defending swindle attacks all while earning enough silver to keep your camps repaired. Unlike house Martell however, things take longer to learn and the house is rather tricky to master. However, out of all the houses I have been in, Lannister was the most fun. Trade, is the base skill you have to work on in order to have an effective Swindle action as well as a secondary Barter action. At Lannister I tried to orientate outfitting myself and my sworn swords in trade, concentrating on my Merchants and Charlatans. However, I also worked on my Vanguards to have a balance between battle and trade. When choosing your fealty, keep in mind your background. For example a merchant background would be ideal for a successful Lannister, but in this example I chose mercenary. This is only because I wanted to use both swindle/barter and fight as actions during AvA. You have a certain amount of versatility when developing your career in each fealty and while it is good to focus on specializing in one area that applies mainly to you fealty type, I find it good to spread out into both trade and battle. It would not be ideal to split three ways however as that would make you mediocre in all areas, instead of strong in a few. Fealty Talents The Mine House Lannister has talents in their fealty that are very much trade based. As you can see form the Lannister rewards given from doing the adventures for their house specifically in the volume five adventure tab they are mainly have hand, body and companion items associated specifically for swindle, with all, apart from the Lannister guardsmen and the guard cloak concentrating in the trade stat. On practically all my charlatans I had the guardsman and the banner equipped. As both items increased the swindle defense and offence whilst also giving the trade base stat a good boost. Lannister have a specialisation in Swindle, which allows you to concentrate on one Talent in Trade while also focusing on a secondary talent in Battle, (I chose fight), which I will go into much more detail later. However, because as you will see Swindle can be used effectively with Barter as your trade base stat will/should be your higher skill, it is wise to invest in talent points in both Barter and Swindle skills respectively as you will see later. The idea in the fighting stype of a Lannister, is not to fight with honor, but rather with skill and deception. You are able to buy power and nagociate from a position of weakness, however as the saying goes..."A Lannister always pays his debts." The Mine is House Lannister's Fealty Building which unlocks at level 13. It produces ore and iron as basic resources. The jeweled armor is an item that you will need to make when trying to create a baby dragon, but that requires the other fealty buildings from Stark, Baratheon, Greyjoy and Targaryen. When starting off as a Lannister it is advisable to start off putting talent points into Golden Wealth and your Swindle fealty immediately, to ensure you have your strongest action maxed. This will get you started and getting used to swindle. Later, once you have built your fealty building (the mine), and invested in a secondary skill like FIGHT or BARTER in my case, you can then start adding to your other Lannister fealties. As you can see they other fealty skills main revolve around making the production of weapons, armour and units cheaper. This becomes highly useful later on in the game, especially before and during AvA, where you are stockpiling the resources needed for camp upgrades. One of the most misunderstood people in the Lannister house is Lord Tywin Lannister. Whilst seemly villainous, he ultimately has always has sought to protect his family and the Lannister name. His motives are selfless but regarded as dishonorable and devious. He does what he can to ensure the Lannister name is in power at all costs. Speaking of which, when progressing through the game at beginning levels I normally sell everything I gain from quests and adventures to keep upgrading my buildings. I tend to annoy my alliance by begging and borrowing until I am at the stage where I can return the aid they have given me. The fastest way to level is by upgrading your buildings, which in turn gain you power and levels. Once you have your buildings upgraded then you can start stockpiling and preparing for war. Again, I stress to add, that trade is the Lannisters forte, and most often than not you will find yourself bartering internally with your alliance members or externally with other alliances, particularly during war, as it keeps your silver reserves growing. Without which you cannot do much. Swindle There are a few things you should understand about Swindle before equipping a Sworn Sword. Swindle is one of the three types of Trade specialisations and the favored action of House Lannister. The swindle strength of your Sworn Swords performing Swindle Action, is equal your Player Character's Swindle Stat (including Buildings and Equipment) and the Stat of the Sworn Sword’s own training and Equipment. Any bonus (e.g., from the Talents in Swindle) for attacks or defense are then applied to the total score. I will provide an example under the outfitting. There is also this achievement which will make more sense to you as we go forward. Swindle in Player to Player '''is a hostile action that will wound and exchange silver to the targeted player, provided you are successful. Swindle is a thieving action. The beauty of a Swindle action is that when you declare a Swindle attack the action seems like an innocent barter, and if successful you gain silver from the defender, to whom the action appears to be a simple Barter and in all likeliness will probably be ignored. While on it's own Swindle might not seem particularly useful as a player to player attack, however it becomes very effective when linking it with following Barter attacks as it will be untraceable if pulled off successfully. Again this reiterates my point about Lannister’s being two-faced and devious. However, there are ways to defend properly against Swindle and it is very important to understand how, because many people are oblivious to the harmful nature of Swindle. The best way to actually explain Swindle is to see it from the point-of-view from another player. Earlier in the week of this episode I attacked a member of my own alliance and almost killed his Sworn Sword accidentally. I was after the achievement and trying to be a proper Lannister, and well a successful barter will always appear as a barter unless the player views the results and doesn't have recognition. So I thought why not. I was hoping he wouldn't notice his Sworn Sworn on three wounds but alas in this circumstance he noticed and this is what followed. '''Swindle in Alliance vs Alliance is highly effective as it gives silver to both the camp you are attacking from and the camp that you are targeting. However, it will wound defending Sworn Swords and damage their camp by 2%. An unsuccessful attempt will damage your Sworn Sword and your camp so rather like the Fight action, you have to make sure that your attacks be successful. During the last AvA - our alliance had one of the most sucessfull campaigns ever. Whilst, we had camps scattered all over Westeros, our camps in the North was a hive of activity and demanded my constant attention. The North is a very contested area in general and sometimes even leaving your Sworn Sword to defend in a camp over night can result in the Sworn dying very quickly. We were being attacked by our old enemy, POLSKA, in RIverlands, and it was rather annoying, because they used Swindle and Steal (two actions that are the most difficult to defend against without a Steal expert and a Lannister), but they were getting away with a lot of silver and our alliance was unable to block them. So, the following tactic is one I used (probably a very common tactic now), to stop them. Needless to say it was sucessfull and resulted in killing thirty three POLSKA Sworn Swords and them eventulaly abandoning their camps in Riverlands and in Crownlands. This is by no means intended to disrespect POLSKA, as we have been enemies for a long time and they give as well as they get and have two if not more of the greatest fighters I have ever faced. However, because this is a Swindle guide, here we go. 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